Hoi An

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We left Nha Trang once again travelling by the sleeping bus. We arrived early in the morning and got to our new hotel 'Phuoc An' half asleep. When we were arrived we were told there was no booking under 'cox'. We were both shocked as we had already paid our deposite the night before and the risk of more sleep deprevation was fueling the anger inside us both. After half an hour and extensive research on the internet, cox came to the conclusion that he had booked for october 26th 2010. Lucky for us there was an available room which we booked. That day we slept a little more and then hired to scooters and headed for the beach. The beach was suprisingly nice and was pretty much as good as Nha Trang which was meant to be the beach capital of Vietnam.


On the way back from the beach we got a great lunch at a very nicely located restaurant on the river.


We took the scooters through Hoi An's city and realised it had a completely different feel to anywhere else we had been in Vietnam. To me it almost reminded me of parts of Europe, cobble stone streets and houses very similar to that of Italy.


The next day we got up early and took a car to My Lai. There were no proper bus tours going there as it wasnt very popular so we had to take a private car which cost us a bit but was completely worth it. It took around two and a half hours each way but eventually after winding our way through some of Vietnams local towns, we arrived.


Our timing was perfect as we arrived at basically the same time as another small tour group. We tagged along with them through the museum and parts of the outside village but all in all there tour guide was very informative. When we first walked into the museum we were overwhelmed by the massive rememberance wall which listen every single person who was murdered in the massacre.

Each little line represented one person that had died.....more disturbing than its sheer size was it also listed there age, many of them ranging from unborn to 10 yearls old. The museum was pretty full on, there were some really graphic photos which we're once again not going to put up because they're just messed up. One thing which if you went to st leonards and did year 12 you would remember the documentary and recogniose this guys face (one of the U.S soldiers............the guy with all the pills)


We walked out onto into the village with the group and slowly all went our seperate ways to walk around what is actually a really small area. The ruins were left from previous homes to remind people of what had happened there.

During our walk around the village we met another aussie couple who were alot older. As we began chatting, the guy was pretty interested to know what inspired us to come here.....asking if we had relatives and so on. It turned out that he served in the airforce during the Vietnam War and through the conversations we had it was pretty clear he had done things that we didnt even bother questioning. We walked into one of the remade huts which was there to represent what the villages once lived in. Inside there was a little girl who we were told was the grandaughter of one of the very few survivors of My Lai. What i thought was pretty ballsy was the Australian who had served during the war walked straight up to her and said 'very pleased to meet you'. Here is a picture of her and the infamous 'ditch' where many were executed and the same ditch John Wade constantly went on about in 'In The Lake of The Woods'.

All in all going to My Lai was a lot more of an experience than Stanway and I had ever expected....but in saying that, it is an experience that will never be forgotten.

On the ride home Stanway was lucky enough to finally get a photo of some of the ridiculous stuff the Vietnamese will carry on a scooter.


The next day we hired a couple of scooters and did the day trip to marble mountain and china beach. We cruised at a reasonable speed along one of the few highways in Vietnam. On the way we started talking to a fellow rider who said she lived in Marble Mountain and would show us the way. Thinking she was just a nice lady, we followed her all the way until we got to her shop, realising that in return she wanted us to buy something once we'd come back down from marble mountain.


We started the trek up the mountain and upon reaching what we thought was the top, we admired the massive structure which we presumed was pretty much all to see on the mountain.

After walking around the moutain a lady who had eaten way too many of these black berries which unforutantely made here out to be alot more threatening than she actually was, led us to this little inlet/cave which had some huge yet intricet sculptures which we could onlypresume where a god or some kind of symbol for their religion.


After walking around a bit we thought we had seen it all, but then found a path which let further up the mountain. We were given a torch and a little Vietnamese man led us into this cave. Thinking that was all he then shouted and pointed up towards a little hole at the top end of the cave.

We climbed up and through and then walked up some shonky steps and a few more rocks to what what the peak of the mountain. Sadly the weather that day was pretty average so the photos probably aren't worth putting up.

Once we returned to the small town of Marble Mountain we had to get our scooters from the shop which the lady expected us to purchase something from. After some high prices and alot of negotiating Stanway somehow purchased an item that we are both still unsure why he bought, most likely for a present.
We got back on our scooters and headed back towards China beach. However after going about 5km in the wrong way and some directions which were lost in translation, we finally found China Beach.
We had a nice lunch on the beach and took a few photos and then proceeded on our way back towards home.

That night turned out to be unexpectably big. We planned on having a few beers but ended up getting on a shuttle bus and making our way to a club on the beach where we ended up having a mad time and meeting lots of other travellers till the wee hours of the morning.

The following day there was awesome weather so we once again hired scooters and took a trip down to the beach where we sipped on some fresh coconuts, lay on the beach and went swimming.

We took the rest of the day nice and easy due to being horrificly tierd and hungover and caught the train to Ninh Binh.........that is in Vietnam and has no relation to the Australian equivilant. The train ride was one hell of an experience and will be told in detail in the next blog. Untill then, we only part to meet again.

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